wefalck

Yep, jigs are a 'professional' approach to making and installing things (though personally I am often too lazy to do it ...). Copper wire is indeed too soft normally to be turned. One can try to strech it to 'work-harden' it by holding one end in a vice and give it a jerk with pliers. However, it general it is difficult to work on leghts greater than two times the diameter. The same applies to most brass. I found that using small brass-nails as starting material helps - the nails are sort of drop-forged and this hardens the material. The general recommendation is to not turn unsupported pieces that overhang more than three times the diameter. With steel you can get away with more, with copper a lot less and brass or wood are somewhere in between. For longer workpieces one needs a dead centre in the tailstock or a fixed steady. A question: did you use the template to form-turn the balustres or just to control the shape, while turning with a normal tool? I am asking, because you seem to have it mounted to the rear.

Topsail-schooners tend to be smaller ships that were sailed with small crews, perhaps a maximum of eight or even less. So the question is, whether they actually bothered with clew- or bunt-lines on topgallants at all, or rather struck them completely, as they may have been set 'flying' anyway. This would depend on time-period and region, of course.

Thanks again to all your encouragement and praise 😇 ********************** Jolly-Boat continued 3 The moment of truth: I removed the copper wire and cut the extended frames with my micro-scissors. Cutting the extended frames with micro-scissors With some cautious rocking of the shell, it came off cleanly. The result is a quite strong hull with the typical exterior and interior look of a clinker-built boat. Unfortunately, some of the frames have moved a bit, but with a drop of acetone this can be fixed. Hull begins to detach from the former I noticed, that the frames did not glue well to the wash-strake, which is actually good, because on the prototype they did not continue to this strake, but ended under an in-whale. I will have find a way to cleanly cut the frames at the appropriate height and then continue with installing the cant-frames, in-whales, floor-boards, seats, etc. Hull successfully taken off the former I am actually wondering now, whether I could have assembled the hull in traditional clinker-fashion, with ‘edge-fastening’ the strakes only and then inserted the frames prototype-fashion afterwards. On the other hand, gluing the stem-keel-combination to the tied-down frames gave a rigid back-bone to work from. So this was probably the best way. To be continued ....

Quite a way of making round-head pins ... I used to chuck up brass pins into my handheld electric drill and shaped the head with files (now I do it on the lathe ...).

Yep, that's going to be a fun project! Making a one-of indeed requires a lot of imagination for set-ups and work-holding. In the factory, they normally used jigs and gang-milled or line-bored matching parts. Time-efficient, when set-up time is bigger than actual machining-time and also ensured that parts often were interchangeable. When turning bushings and the likes, I would only use twist-drills at the very beginning and finish off the hole using a boring bar. This avoids oval, conical and off-centre holes. The boring-bar should be as big as the hole permits to reduce flexing. The effect of flexing can be removed by running the boring-bar through the hole a couple of times without feeding in. Pulleys for flat belts are indeed always domed, one can see that even on my PROXXON bench-drill ...

Talking about 'upgrading': once you have a mill, you can make lot's of accessories yourself, special ones and replicating standard ones to suit your own requirements and ideas ...

If you use a fast-drying and solvent-based lacquer instead of glue, this will solve a lot of the problems, as any knots and hanks can be softened and adjusted just with a drop of solvent ...

I gather, oneself is one's worst critic ... and being critical of one's own work gives one the means to do better next time. The most difficult thing is to overcome one's own impatience to get things done 🤔 My problem often is that I work so slowly (also because 'real' life gets in the way all the time) that I often keep forgetting lessons learnt by the time I should use them again 😬

Both smell very nice and fruity (amyl alcohol) 😇

Thanks gentlemen ! I actually realise, how this not so even planking happened. On one hand, I didn't look too carefully at the running of the planking on the starbord bow-section, being mainly concerned that the planks on both sides meet properly - negligence. On the other hand, the stern area was not fully filled with the core and there was a too large gap between the last frame and the transom - it was difficult to align the planks without pushing them in. At this small size it was also difficult to mark out the runs of the planks beforehand, so I did everything 'by eye'. This got me into trouble in the transition area between the stern-post and the transom, where on this boat there is quite a small-radiused transition curve between both. Perhaps I should have had a narrower plank at that point. For technical reasons the planks are wider than one would have on the prototype: the small scale-overlap was just not achievable, particularly as the edges could not be bevelled. Perhaps working in thin veneer or styrene would be better than using paper, but my cheapo laser-cutter cannot handle such materials, it jut doesn't have enough power for it.

As noted earlier on, old-style nail-polish is essentially the same as what is sold over here in Europe as zapon-lacquer (to protect polished metal surfaces mainly) and I use it on everything.

Jolly-Boat continued 2 Just a short update to show that the planking as such is finished. I am not 100% satisfied with my work. The plank widths could/should have been more equal, but I somehow struggled with the shape of this boat more than with the others. Also, it was easier to glue the planks to the solid core than just to the framework and the edge of the plank underneath. Jolly-boat starboard side – overall length is 36 mm After the planks were on, a doubling for the keel and stem was attached to both side, kind of faking a landing of the planks in a rabbet. Jolly-boat port side There are several little gaps and other imperfections that need to be touched up with a bit of putty, but I will do this only after having separated (hopefully) the boat from the former. The putty is quite brittle and my fall out during the procedure. Looking down onto the planking Once the boat has been released and the frames trimmed back, the wash-strake can be sanded to its final width and shape. Some additional (cant)frames will have to go in before the further fitting out can begin. To be continued ....

You should make a little film with a video-endoscope to appreaciate all this work !

Imposing ...

Excellent rendering ! Only two things are missing: the trigger and the finger-guard at the pistol-grip 🤪

Sail also stabilise a ship in more severe weather, but I gather the main purpose was an insurance against the frequent engine problems in those early years of steam propulsion.

Most you ever want to know about gaff rigs is explained in LEATHER, J. (1977): Gaff Rigg.- 272 p., London (Granada Publishing). There are indeed standing and lowering gaffs as Bob explained above. In general, boom-less gaff-sails (as in GREAT EASTERN) were typically rigged with standing gaffs. There would have been no place to store the gaffs in the absence of booms.

These were the forerunners of linoleum - Walton (the linoleum inventor) wanted to make something more durable than these oil-cloths. One can imagine that they wore through quite quickly when walked over with street footwear.

Thank's gentlemen! Actually, this technique of building has been described in the classic works on POF, think Underhill or Curti, I just translated it into different materials and some modern tooling. The copper wire to keep the frames down was an emergency solution, when I realised that the frames would not follow the core due to the slight tumblehome of hull. I first tried thread, but twisting the wire pulled it nice and snug around the template.

Actually, Niels, that's a clever idea to sew on the bolt-rope flat and then to turn over the seam! That strategy could also be used for hand-sewing. To prevent thin fabric from pulling out of shape during machine-sewing, in the past, I glue the fabric on a piece of thin silk-paper, then sewing through it. Afterwards, it could be ripped out without leaving traces. Unfortunately, I will not be able to test your idea in practice, as at the scale I chose to work in, fabric is not suitable for sails.

Apologies to all, who visited over the past three weeks this building log and found that nothing happened. Real life gets in our way quite often and also a bit of travelling for fun … ******************* Jolly-Boat continued The main pieces for the core over which this boat will be constructed as plank-on frame build were laser-cut from Canson-paper and assembled in the manner described previously. The spaces between the bulkheads were filled with hard acrylic foam (Rohacell™) and the foam sanded back to the bulkheads using diamond needle files. Some gaps were filled with putty and then the whole thing soaked in wood sanding-filler to provide a hard surface. Core for the POF construction The keel-stem combination and the transom were also cut out by laser in two copies to be stuck together to arrive at the correct thickness. The back-bone of the jolly-boat A base’board’ for building was cut from the same paper in double and the two copies stuck together for more rigidity. This baseboard had holes laser-cut in for the bent frames in order to give the exact spacing as per plan. The core then was covered in a layer of cling-film to prevent the lacquer to be used during the construction from sticking to the core (hopefully). Using again very thin double-sided mounting tape, the core was stuck to the baseboard. The bent frames were cut using the laser to the required width of 0.2 mm which translates at 1:160 scale to a width of 32 mm. They should be only 0.1 mm thick (15 mm in the original), but the paper is a tad thicker. These frames were inserted into the pre-cut holes and aligned carefully. Then the keel-stem-transom assembly was lacquered into place. It should be noted that there are a couple of cant-frames that but against the keel/stem, rather than running under it. The framed structure It should be noted that this is the reverse construction order compared to the original. The clinker-built boat would be built over a couple of templates, with the planks going in first and the frames bent in afterwards. I chose this method, because having the frames in place is likely to make a stronger shell, when trying to remove it from the core. The garboard-plank installed On any clinker-built boat the garboard-plank is the most difficult to install due to its torsion and bending. Here it was no exception. It needed a fair amount of coercion, but it looks promising. I only hope, that I will be able to remove the shell from the core in the end … To be continued ....

Russel, would you have a picture of the material? Also what scale are you working in. I gather there are various fabric dyes on the market, I suppose (I do not know the US American market). Keep in mind, however, that tanned sails, where not just coloured, but they were smeared with concotions of tallow and yellow/red ochre, so the sails would appear rather smooth. One can simulate this by soaking the material with acrylic paint, so that it covers most of the weave.

Same for me - the other way around

Jewellery-making supply shops normally carry them (or at least list them in their catalogues).

It seems that your head scratching had similar effect as Samantha's twiched nose (remember 'Bewitched' ?): the engines are definitely coming along nicely 👍